Page 19 of Chains and Vows

CHAPTER 5

The world is a weird fuckin' place.

One day looks like this. The next, looks like that.

Two things that are always the same and never the same.

A clock face with hands that point up like they're praying.

Filled with seconds, and minutes, and hours.

Twenty-four units of time that mark both the beginning and the end.

And no two days are ever the same.

Little things can happen that change a universe.

Big things can happen that change nothin' at all.

You just never know what kind of day you're gonna have.

I actually take a moment to smile here.

Because today is a good day.

After bein’ born into a family where a mother had no space in her heart for her own son.

After learnin’ that the woman who was literally my surrogate mother had commanded her daughter to 'marry respectably' in her will so she wouldn't marry me.

After doin' time in prison for the FBI and the man who killed my father.

After havin’ my woman kidnapped by her own fuckin' brothers and her sick fuck of a fiancé just to make sure I got the point—Savannah Ashby wasn't mine.

After killin’ men I thought were friends.

After losin’ Havoc.

After all that waitin’, out at the clubhouse, for the siege that never happened.

After Mike's attempt to turn me into his little bitch…

Cash Ashby invites me on a ride to go check a well pump and delivers me…

What?

What should I call this?

It's not salvation. Not quite.

It's not revenge. That's the wrong word for rightin' random bad luck.

It's more like… the universe squarin' up.

Like it's finally admittin' that it was wrong from the start.

Like I deserved better.

It's a helluva thing to learn at thirty-two.